Craig Kraffert, a Redding dermatologist and downtown building owner, told the City Council on Tuesday he opposes regulations in the city's Downtown Specific Plan that limit uses on the ground floor of street-fronting buildings.
Sean Longoria

Bruce Brubaker of Placeworks presents details from the final draft of Redding's Downtown Specific Plan to the Redding City Council on Tuesday.(Photo: Sean Longoria/Record Searchlight)

Downtown building owners caught a break Tuesday night when the Redding City Council approved changes to the guiding document for land use and development in the area exempting current owners from strict rules on how to use their properties.

“I purchased buildings and invested many millions based on a seemingly concrete set of usage rules. I would not have invested under the newly proposed rules, I wouldn’t have,” Dr. Craig Kraffert told councilmembers. “Other potential core investors will likely vote similarly with their dollars, resulting in decreasing property values as a direct result of this proposed rule and the distaste it will engender.”

The council unanimously approved the update to the Downtown Specific Plan, a guiding document calling for creating vibrant public spaces, prioritizing a pedestrian-first environment, encouraging the right mix of land uses and urban design and enhancing the Cultural District. The plan also promotes more shade streets and crime prevention through environmental design in addition to reducing development impact fees, streamlining permitting and deferring some taxes for new development.

“That’s going to further incentivize entrepreneurial risk in that part of our community. I know of a number of people who have come to me personally, they’re really excited for this to be adopted so they can get their projects started and take advantage of those opportunities,” said Jake Mangas, president of the Redding Chamber of Commerce.

Councilman Brent Weaver, who owns a building at Market and Shasta streets and is partnering on another on Pine Street, recused himself from the vote.

The council’s approval stripped a requirement that street-fronting businesses in the downtown core use only up to half their first floor for office space in favor of retail, restaurants and entertainment. The core is the center of downtown, bordered between Shasta and South streets on the north and south and railroad tracks and East Street on the west and east.

That recommendation split the city staff and consultant from the city’s Planning Commission, which just last month signed off on the plan while recommending the city allow unrestricted office spaces in downtown buildings.

K2 Land and Investment is razing the former Dicker's building to make room for a four-story, mixed-use development.(Photo: Rendering courtesy of K2)

Under the initial final draft, the street-fronting businesses with occupied offices on the first floor could keep those spaces. Vacant office space, though, could only remain for up to three years.

“In our experience, if there’s a lot of ground floor office uses, it can be rather dead along a street frontage,” said Bruce Brubaker of Placeworks, the city’s consultant on the plan. “Some office uses are fine but the kind of activity downtown Redding really wants to see is life, stoops from residential but also cafes, restaurants, shops and, really, street life. Sometimes offices don’t allow as much visible vibrancy along street frontages. It also allows more eyes on the streets when you have more shops and restaurants rather than offices.”

The matter also drew protest from Kraffert and others who said owners are already struggling to find tenants and worried that the new requirements would be too restrictive to foster vibrancy.

An artist rendering shows plans for a mixed-use project to replace half of the aging parking structure in downtown Redding.(Photo: Sean Longoria/Record Searchlight)

“I think you really have to be very careful in trying to manufacture a market, a market that doesn’t exist. Because it doesn’t exist, it’s not there,” said Arch Pugh. “If there was a demand for retail downtown, they’d be there. But there isn’t. Over time, it’s growing, but you have to give the property owners down there an opportunity to at least get money back from their investment so they can move forward.”

New construction will face the new requirements under the plan.

Already, three projects planned for the core include retail space, restaurants or entertainment in their ground-floor plans: K2 Development Companies mixed-use replacement for the former Dicker's department store building, the company's partnership with McConnell for another mixed-use building to replace the north half of the downtown parking garage and Weaver's partnership on Pine Street.

Tuesday's approval brings the two-year process to update the plan, first passed in 2001.

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The Planning Commission's approval for a use permit on the project helps clear the way for both agencies to apply for a $20 million grant.
Sean Longoria